Chapter 13
Chapter 13
“What they were hiding… was human experimentation.”
“...Human experimentation?”
“This place belonged to a subsidiary research complex of the foreign corporation, Elysium.”
Elysium.
The name sounded familiar.
“Wasn’t that the company that claimed to be developing vaccines?”
“Right! I’ve heard of them too!”
They were known as a global corporation.
A giant famous for creating vaccines for all kinds of infectious diseases.
“Then why isn’t their logo anywhere around here?”
“Because this was a secret laboratory.”
“A secret lab?”
Well, it made sense.
If they were conducting human experiments, they’d obviously want to hide it.
That way, even if they got caught, they could deny everything.
As soon as he said it, the underground floors came back to mind.
Those narrow containment cells.
The things that must’ve happened behind those iron bars.
“Isn’t there any way we can screw those bastards over?”
“There is one.”
Lee Hyunjae answered confidently.
“It’s a computer virus.”
“Oh?”
“I can say I kept researching the mutants and stored all the data inside this.”
If they did that, the higher-ups would definitely think it was valuable.
And once they used it—
“Not bad.”
The plan was set.
A few days later.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—
The sound of helicopter blades echoed through the sky.
“Wow… they’re really using helicopters?”
Lee Sua and I were positioned outside the research complex.
Through shared vision, we were watching Lee Hyunjae inside.
“How’s it looking?”
“It’s fine. Looks like Hyunjae already told them.”
One of the men in special forces gear hurriedly pulled out a satellite phone after hearing Lee Hyunjae speak.
He was probably reporting to headquarters.
After receiving the USB, the man calmly drew a pistol.
Bang!
He shot Lee Hyunjae straight in the head.
At the same time, the other special forces soldiers who had already entered the facility boarded the helicopter one by one.
Then they left.
“As expected.”
“Fucking bastards.”
And then.
A few minutes after they departed—
BOOOOOM!
A massive explosion tore through the research complex.
A giant pillar of dust shot into the sky.
“Damn…”
So it was true.
They really had come to erase the records.
“What should we do now?”
Lee Sua looked at me.
But the answer was obvious.
“We leave.”
Daejeon didn’t seem like a city meant for us anymore.
Before searching for a new hideout—
“I wonder how those bastards are doing.”
“Who? Ah, the people who kicked you out?”
“Yeah.”
The memory surfaced again.
It was true that getting expelled from the crew had led to my awakening.
But I still couldn’t forget it.
Those eyes that looked at me like they’d kill me if I refused to leave.
“Want to go check?”
I casually asked Lee Sua.
“I don’t mind.”
If anything, she sounded interested.
We retraced the path we had taken before.
Following traces and signs.
And while we were taking a short break—
“What the hell?”
Lee Sua frowned.
“What?”
“Some assholes are watching us.”
“Seriously?”
I scanned the surroundings.
But I couldn’t see anyone.
“I don’t see shit.”
“Over there.”
At the tip of her finger, a head was peeking out.
The moment our eyes met, it ducked back down.
Then—
Rustle!
People began appearing one after another.
About ten of them.
“Well, would you look at that! A woman!”
“Hehehe! Jackpot!”
“They don’t look like they’ve got much though… shame.”
They were filthy drifters covered in grime and scars.
Their eyes were clouded.
The eyes of people who hadn’t eaten or slept properly in a long time.
Yet the way they stared at Lee Sua was filled with disgusting greed.
‘Bandits.’
Common trash in the apocalypse.
People who survived by stealing from others.
“Hand over everything you’ve got, asshole!”
Holding knives, they slowly approached us.
Especially while drooling over Lee Sua with revolting expressions.
Lee Sua frowned and asked,
“Can I kill them all?”
“Do whatever you want.”
“Got it.”
As soon as she answered—
“Khehehe! What’d she say? Kill us all?”
“Looks like the bitch is crazy. Guess she needs treatment.”
The men laughed mockingly as they approached her.
But then—
Shing—
The moment she pulled out her dagger—
Slash!
“...Huh?”
The head of the man in front instantly separated from his body.
And at the same time—
Slash!
Another head was already flying off.
It was so fast it looked like both had been cut simultaneously.
‘Damn… no matter how many times I see it, that speed is insane.’
Lee Sua’s stats leaned heavily toward speed.
Her attack power and durability lacked slightly, but her speed more than made up for it.
In the blink of an eye—
“P-Please spare me!”
Only one man remained.
Trembling in terror, he dropped to his knees and begged.
Lee Sua calmly walked toward him.
But then—
“You fucking bitch!”
The man suddenly pulled out a hidden knife and lunged at her.
But—
Slash!
He was cut down the moment he attacked.
Fwoosh!
Lee Sua flicked the blood from her dagger.
“Terrifying.”
Still—
“Why were guys like these all the way out here?”
“Exactly.”
They were all men.
Mostly young ones.
The kind of manpower any crew would gladly take in.
So why were they robbing people?
“There’s definitely something going on.”
It felt like there was a situation we didn’t know about.
Then Lee Sua wiped her dagger clean with a cloth and asked,
“How far is your old crew from here?”
“We’re almost there.”
“Really?”
“It’s flat terrain, so not much farther.”
“Alright then.”
Lee Sua resumed walking beside me, though her expression still looked uneasy.
After a few more minutes—
“Oh.”
A familiar building caught my eye.
Lee Sua noticed my reaction.
“That the place?”
“Yeah.”
“Smaller than I expected.”
“Ahem! It was built by ordinary people. It’d be weird if it were huge.”
It looked like a rough stone wall fortress built along a rural road.
But inside, they had all sorts of things.
Back then, the crew had a lot of people with engineering backgrounds.
Even though this was the crew that kicked me out, seeing it again still stirred some nostalgia.
At one point, we had lived like family.
I walked toward the iron gate and knocked in a familiar pattern.
Soon, two figures appeared behind the bars.
“Who are you?”
“Hm?”
I hesitated at the unfamiliar faces.
Still—
“I used to belong here. I’d like to see someone for a moment.”
The man looked me over.
Then disappeared inside.
A little later, he returned with someone else.
“Huh?”
The man recognized me immediately.
And I recognized him too.
One of the very few people I’d been close with.
But—
‘He’s gotten skinny… and those bruises…’
Something felt wrong.
He looked emaciated and beaten up.
He used to be a solidly built guy.
I frowned instinctively, but quickly changed my expression.
“Han! Damn, it’s been forever!”
“Long time no see, Chulsoo hyung.”
Kim Chulsoo looked at me with clear envy in his eyes.
A healthy body and clean clothes.
At this point, I was practically a walking sign saying I’m doing great.
But then—
“Hey, is this really him?”
“Yeah. He used to be part of this crew.”
“Hm… really?”
One of the gatekeepers looked back and forth between me and Lee Sua.
Then, with a greedy gaze—
“Come in.”
“T-That’s a bad idea!”
“This little shit…”
Kim Chulsoo tried to stop them, but shrank back under the gatekeeper’s glare.
Then he desperately started signaling at me with his eyes.
Run.
“This idiot’s irrelevant. Get inside.”
“Well, if you insist.”
Ignoring Kim Chulsoo’s desperate expression, we entered the small shelter.
“Damn… brings back memories.”
Around fifty to sixty people lived here.
There was even a small field and a stream nearby.
A good location overall.
“The entrance hasn’t changed.”
But the moment I stepped further inside—
“What the hell?”
The nostalgic memories shattered instantly.
The fields we used to cultivate had been torn apart.
And the people—
Something was wrong with them.
They were working while being whipped by a supervisor.
Most of them were people I knew.
Their eyes were empty.
No energy left in them.
They couldn’t even spare the strength to look at me.
They just kept their heads down and worked.
“What the…”
I turned toward the gatekeeper.
He shrugged.
“We’re just following orders from above. It’s not like they’re being forced to work or anything. Anyway, the boss wanted to see you.”
“Hm…”
Was it still the same leader who kicked me out?
Or had someone else taken over?
Either way, anger started boiling inside me.
Even if this place had cast me out—
I’d cared about it.
We had laughed and struggled together while building this shelter.
And getting expelled had ultimately been the result of political bullshit from the people at the top.
Grinding my teeth, I walked deeper into the shelter.
And finally—
I saw the leader.
The best room inside the main building.
The moment the door opened, a strong scent of perfume filled the air.
Perfume.
In a situation like this.
But—
“Ohho. So you’re the one who used to work here?”
I had never seen him before.
Before I left, the leader had been a middle-aged man.
But now—
A young man sat there, heavily made up, greeting me.
His face was covered in makeup, and he wore luxurious silk-like clothes.
An outfit so extravagant it didn’t belong in the apocalypse.
Luxury itself.
“Who are you?”
The question slipped out naturally